Physical mixing of a catalyst and a hydrophobic polymer promotes CO hydrogenation through dehydration
Wei Fang, Chengtao Wang, Zhiqiang Liu, Liang Wang, Lu Liu, Hangjie Li, Shaodan Xu, Anmin Zheng, Xuedi Qin, Lujie Liu, Feng‐Shou Xiao
Abstract
In many reactions restricted by water, selective removal of water from the reaction system is critical and usually requires a membrane reactor. We found that a simple physical mixture of hydrophobic poly(divinylbenzene) with cobalt-manganese carbide could modulate a local environment of catalysts for rapidly shipping water product in syngas conversion. We were able to shift the water-sorption equilibrium on the catalyst surface, leading to a greater proportion of free surface that in turn raised the rate of syngas conversion by nearly a factor of 2. The carbon monoxide conversion reached 63.5%, and 71.4% of the hydrocarbon products were light olefins at 250°C, outperforming poly(divinylbenzene)-free catalyst under equivalent reaction conditions. The physically mixed CoMn carbide/poly(divinylbenzene) catalyst was durable in the continuous test for 120 hours.